Max POV

I watched with a laugh on my lips as Annabeth and Percy hopelessly sparred with weak twigs that the group of us had found on our quick expedition into the woods earlier on in the day. They swatted at each other with no real strength behind each swing, but still they acted as if they had been mortally injured after each hit they took.

A loud, choking laugh left Leo as Annabeth landed a, supposedly, fatal blow to Percy's side, causing said boy to clutch at his ribs, a pained groan leaving him as he fell to his knees. "Annabeth," he rasped out weakly, his eyes smiling up at the girl as she held her twig out to the boy's neck, poking lightly at his Adam's apple as it bobbed in an attempt to hide his laughter, "Why? We could have…ruled…the world."

With that last dramatic act, Percy keeled over, sticking his tongue out comically as he face-planted into Annabeth's bare feet. She let out a snort and wiggled her toes on Percy's cheek, making him snap up with a disgusted look on his face, his nose scrunching up as he shoved Annabeth away from him.

"Nasty, Wise Girl," he pouted as Annabeth apologetically patted at his cheek, even going as far as to deliver a chaste kiss to it before lifting him to his feet. "Keep your stinky toes away from me if you want to keep them."

"Damn, Perce," Piper piped up from where she sat next to Jason–who just so happened to be visiting for the week, what a sweetheart–her fingers absentmindedly drumming against the can of root beer she clutched in her hands. "I always took you for someone with a foot fetish."

Percy sputtered at this as the rest of us let out a loud bout of laughter.

"If a daughter of the goddess of love thinks you have a foot fetish," Leo managed seeing as he was easily laughing the hardest, "Then I think it's safe to say that you do, my guy."

Percy launched his twig at Leo who easily dodged out of its way much to the other's chagrin. Thalia, who had only joined us post-forest adventure, blinked owlishly at the exchange before nonchalantly taking a sip of her own soda and leaning over me to burp attractively into her brother's ear.

Jason let out a squeak before reaching over to bat at Thalia childishly, all the while hitting me in the process.

"Max!" Leo suddenly shouted out, jumping to his feet and pointing dramatically at me. His soda rocked back and forth but luckily didn't spill, a fact that Leo should be thanking the gods for seeing as its spillage would result in the sopping of Piper's self-proclaimed 'favorite' shorts–we were all at least 98% sure by now that they were actually Jason's and he did nothing to confirm nor deny said suspicion–and a wrath worse than that of any god. "You and I must duel immediately!"

I rolled my eyes but set my soda down behind Thalia and bounced to my feet, pointing back at the boy in the same over-dramatic fashion. "Me? Duel with you? My superior twig-fighting skills will surely trump yours!" With that I held out my hand, thanking Thalia silently as she placed a puny twig into my palm, and whipped it back around, letting out a battle cry even though I had yet to rush at the boy.

"I could best you any day!" Leo shouted back despite our close proximity. Likewise, he held out his hand for a stick which Piper reluctantly placed into his hand, rolling her eyes as he flourished it in front of him, whipping it about in figure eights and jumping from one foot to the other all the while holding out an ongoing shriek.

I hid a snicker behind the back of my hand and quickly lowered myself into a sloppy fighting position, my legs spread too far apart and my twig-arm reaching straight out towards Leo while the other stretched behind me. It looked more like a yoga pose than a dueling stance, but seeing as Leo was quick to follow me into a messy position, I found no need to correct myself. Unlike me, Leo was balanced on one leg, the other raised awkwardly as he huddled down near his waist, his arms spread out to keep himself balanced.

"Ready!" Jason called out seeing as Piper, the usual match starter, was too busy burying her face in Jason's chest in order to hide her hysterical laughter at the sight before her. "Fight!"

Leo and I began to circle each other, Leo hopping clumsily on his one leg and me doing an over-exaggerated version of side lunges. "I will not lose so easily, Maximum," Leo said choppily, his face contorting as he tried to keep it serious all the while hiding his own laughter. "I have been the best twig-fighter this town has ever seen since my father, and you shall not best me!"

"Oh, but I will, Leonardo," I responded evilly, "I am the champion twig-fighter. I have bested your father once and now I shall best his legacy!"

Just as the two of us were about to lunge at each other the loud honk of the dinner horn sounded, freezing all of us in the middle of our fun. "Damn," Leo cursed under his breath as the both of us dropped our obscure poses and glanced at the rest of our group. Suddenly, Leo turned to me and flung his twig at me. It softly hit the center of my stomach before gently falling to the ground.

The lot of us all stared down at where the twig had hit, all of us with a confused expression save Leo, who wore a victorious smirk as he set his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. It only took a moment until I understood what had just happened. Once I did it didn't take long until I fell dramatically to my knees just as Percy had done, clutching at my stomach weakly as if to feel at the wound.

I turned my gaze up to Leo, a betrayed expression on my face and my eyes shining with tears caused from the building laughter inside of me. "Leo," I managed to breath out between pained groans. I clutched my stomach tighter and let out a hollow cough to disguise my laughter. By then our small group had begun to laugh once again. "I can't believe it, I've been bested."

With that last statement I smoothly face planted into the ground, rolling over onto my back and sticking my tongue out as I let loose one last gurgle in lieu of a death rattle and closed my eyes. Only a moment later I burst into laughter, doubling on myself and rolling into a ball on the ground of the training arena.

A hand still shaking with giggles was offered to me and I took it without a second thought, allowing Annabeth to lift me to my feet and lightly brush off any sort of dust or dirt that had stuck to my camp shirt. I sent her a thankful smile before pacing forward and grabbing my soda, downing the rest of it in seconds and smacking my lips as I brought the can away from my face.

"Thalia," I sang out, throwing an arm over her shoulders as the lot of us began to make out way to the pavilion that served as the mess hall of the camp, laughter and rushed words following us at our leisurely pace, "What can I do to thank you for this heavenly nectar you have blessed us with? It has been ages since I have had a soda and I am honestly feeling hashtag-blessed."

"Did you really just say 'hashtag' out loud?" Piper snorted incredulously at the same time Percy reached around Thalia to give me a light rap on the back of my head.

"Well," Thalia considered, ignoring the actions going on around us as she stroked her chin as if deep in thought, "You could, for one, toss my can so I don't have to do it."

I glared at her, but snatched the can from her grasp nonetheless as we headed towards conveniently placed trash-bin before turning to the pavilion, "You drive a hard bargain, but I suppose I shall allow it."

"Hell yeah, you will!" Thalia whooped triumphantly once we had all walked away from the trash bin and headed towards the bustling pavilion, the excited whispers loud enough to be heard from out here.

"How much," Leo hummed as he inserted himself between Piper and Jason and swung himself back and forth all the while weighing himself down on their shoulders. They both looked annoyed, but the endearment that they had towards their friend was obvious on their faces. "Do you want to bet that there are new campers?"

"Oh come on," Percy snorted, extracting himself from Annabeth and inserting himself into the group of three just as Leo had done, posing himself between the son of Hephaestus and Piper who grunted slightly as Percy's weight was suddenly forced onto her. She poked him in the side but otherwise made no move to push him off. "Spice it up a little. How much do you want to bet that at least one of them is a child of Ares?"

"You're on, boyfriend," Leo sassed, pulling himself off of Jason to instead clamber onto Percy just as the latter had done to me just the day before. "If there's a kid of Ares you get five drachma, if not than I get the cash-money."

"Only five drachma?" Percy sneered playfully as he supported Leo's body weight in his arms, wrapping them around the other and squeezing as if threatening him, "That's only like, what? One dollar? One dollar, right?" He turned to Annabeth who nodded tiredly despite the smile playing at her lips. "Yeah, one dollar. Let's raise the stakes. Fifty drachma. That's, like, ten dollars or something. Maybe."

Leo groaned and buried his face into Percy's neck, letting out a fake sniffle before he tilted his head so his mouth was next to Percy's ear. "Perseus Jackson, I am a broke boy with zero cash-money in total. If I had fifty drachma a-k-a 'ten dollars' I would most definitely not be spending it on a stupid bet."

"Fine, Lover-Boy," Percy whined as he flicked at Leo's butt, smirking at the squawk he let out, "Five drachma. It's on, punk."

"Ooh, Perce," I cooed teasingly, using Thalia as support as I leant over to Percy and Leo, "That was kinky."

Piper snickered and quickly joined in with me, "First the foot fetish and now this? Damn, Annabeth is one lucky girl."

Annabeth sighed dramatically and fell onto me, one of her legs stretched out across Jason for Piper to grab which she smoothly did before lifting up her other leg as well. I shifted so that I was holding onto Annabeth's torso and soon the two of us were carrying her along, swinging her body back and forth and effectively hitting Jason gently in the gut with each swing. "You don't know the half of it. Just yesterday he asked me to cover him with…honey, yeah, honey. It was a sticky mess and I'm sure he's still got it stuck all over himself."

"She's right," Percy chirped back, "I've been sticking to just about anything I touch," he then turned to peek at Leo, "Looks like you're going to be here for a while."

"Oh, my knight!" Leo swooned, his face falling onto Percy's shoulder as he peered up at him lovingly through thick eyelashes. "If this isn't true love than I don't know what is!"

Our group was filled with laughter and teasing jests as we finally reached the pavilion.

"Ah, beloved campers," Dionysus snarked tiredly, his eyes half lidded as he peered at us over a chalice of sparkling grape juice, "And, of course, our favorite fledgling goddess. Welcome to dinner, as the horn from ten minutes ago suggested."

"Sorry, Mister-D," Percy called out, Leo still stuck to him like a koala, "We won't let it happen again."

"Unless we do," Leo spoke up, "Let it happen again, that is."

"Settle down, everyone," Chiron's deep, booming voice echoed around the pavilion, easily drawing all attention to him. He smiled kindly down at the campers from where he stood, easily twice our heights in his true form. As the mess calmed down, Chiron trotted slightly to his side, revealing a collection of people who must have been the new campers. My eyes absently slid over them before resting on the fire pit already smoking with offerings to the gods. My mouth watered as I caught a whiff of it, and I eagerly reminded myself to get a helping of whatever was burning. "I would like to announce the arrival of new…campers."

"Children of Ares, children of Ares," Percy chanted under his breath, much to Leo's chagrin as he swatted at his chest to get him to shut his trap.

"Now, seeing as our-what did you call her again, Dionysus?"

"Fledgling goddess," Dionysus spat out sourly, taking a sip of his juice with a dissatisfied look on his face.

"Yes, that. Seeing as she is, officially, the goddess of mutation, we would like to welcome the arrival of a collection of mutants to our humble camp. Please treat them kindly and remember that their patron goddess is among you at the very moment."

Chiron's words caught my attention and I hesitantly lifted my head to catch sight of whatever mutants he was talking about.

Oh.

Shit.

No.

I blinked once, twice, even wiped at my eyes to make sure that they weren't deceiving me. They weren't.

It was the flock.